


Distract Me

by inzomnia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Fluff, Gym AU, M/M, Ridiculousness, Slow Burn, Swearing, Thiam, Trayden
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-03-19 13:13:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inzomnia/pseuds/inzomnia
Summary: The AU that no one asked for in which Liam and Theo meet at the gym. Theos a tease and Liams adorably oblivious.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This thing started because of [this post](http://lethal-desires.tumblr.com/post/169826439748/the-only-way-to-get-rid-of-temptation-is-to-yeild), I couldn't get the idea out of my head and it turned out way longer than I intended lol.

Liam’s life is pretty perfect if he does say so himself. He’s got two amazing best friends, Mason and Hayden, that he can rely on for anything and parents who love him. School is great too, he gets good grades and even though being as passionate about songwriting as he is is hard work, he wouldn’t change it for the world. The feeling of the pencil gliding smoothly across the paper as he blocks out the rest of the world around him never fails to wash a wave of calm over him after a long day, and the feeling of coming up with a particularly good lyric or completing a song is a reward in itself, and he loves it.

 

He could also mention his insanely hot, lacrosse-playing boyfriend, who has a dazzling smile that could easily brighten any dark room. The story of how they met is the typical ‘jock falls for the cute nerdy kid’ and they’ve been together for over two years already, and their third year anniversary just so happens to be coming up in four days this Sunday.

 

Liam’s excited, already planning out exactly what he wants to do that day, planning the perfect day for him and Garrett. He wants it to be special, the other boy makes him so happy, so it’s only fair that he makes the day as brilliant as his boyfriend is. He’ll pick him up from the extra training session the coach is making the team do, luckily it’s early in the day, and bring him home so they can both get ready and maybe watch a movie or that TV show about teenage werewolves they started to pass the time. Liam has had this really fancy restaurant booked for months in advance, it only has amazing reviews so he can’t wait to take Garrett there, he only deserves the best after all. Yeah, Liam has it bad.

 

——

 

He has a spring in his step as he jumps out his car and heads towards the lacrosse field, he couldn’t wait for today, he was already imagining the look on Garrett's face when he realised where Liam was taking him. He really was a great boyfriend. The team was still running through plays and Liam scanned his eyes over the pitch, looking for Garrett (and seriously hoping he has his shirt off like some of the other guys because even though it’s not really a hot day, they seriously work up a sweat when playing a particularly intense game).

 

He couldn’t see him, but that didn’t dampen his mood any, he was probably just using the bathroom of filling up his water bottle, Liam was a bit early after all. He made his way over to the locker rooms, anticipation growing inside him at the thought of seeing Garrett on their special day. He was already grinning like an idiot, nothing could possibly ruin his mood-

 

Except maybe that.

 

Liam gasped loudly as he took in the sight in front of him, there was his boyfriend with his lips pressed against some, some _girl_. She was practically trying to swallow his face, and if Liam’s heart hadn’t just shattered into a million pieces in less than a second, he probably would have laughed at the ridiculous image they made. They were like animals, and apparently, neither of them had even heard Liam come in. 

 

He choked on a sob, and his boyfriend- no, ex-boyfriend’s head finally whipped around to look at him, looking like a deer caught in headlights. The girl glances over at him too, and Liam was finally able to recognise her now that her face wasn’t molded to Garretts. It was Violet. Liam's blood boiled, and before he knew what he was doing, his legs were carrying him over to a now extremely frightened looking blonde.

 

“Li, wait! This isn’t what it looks lik-“

 

But Liam didn’t even let him finish before his fist was connecting hard with the side of the other boy’s face, Violet let out a whimper of fear, and Liam’s head snapped to her daring her with his eyes to make any more noise. He turned back to Garrett snarling. 

 

“NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE?!” He screamed as Garrett coughed and sputtered from his place on the floor “WHAT WOULD YOU CALL MAKING OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE WHEN YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND HUH?”

 

He could feel the tears welling in his eyes, he couldn’t be seen like that by these people, so he uses the rest of the adrenaline pumping through his veins to turn and run back out the way he came. And he just kept running, abandoning his car in the parking lot, he was too angry to drive and he wasn’t about to risk hurting anybody else. He ran all the way home, holding in the tears until he collapsed onto his mattress. 

 

He didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that no one was home to hear him cry himself to sleep. 

 

——

 

Liam woke again to the afternoon sun getting lower and lower, some of the last rays of warmth streaming through his window making him groan when he tried to open his eyes and was met with a blinding light. He could vaguely hear his phones ringtone, he covered his ears with another groan. The sound was piercing, and he thanked whatever deity was out there when it stopped. His eyes stung, and he could feel the moisture still on his skin reminding him why he was here and not dining in some fine restaurant. 

 

The buzzing from his phone started up again and he buried his head in his pillow hoping to drown out the sound, to no avail. He huffed as he pulled himself to a sitting position at the end of his bed and crossed his legs, reaching for his phone. Not even thinking before pressing the green button to answer, fully unprepared for the loud voice on the other end. 

 

“Liam, is that you? Oh my god dude you can’t just cut off all communication like that!”

 

“Mase it’s literally been a few hours.” He replied, cringing a bit as he adjusted to sitting upright.

 

“I know man, but all I get is this cryptic text from Garrett saying ‘oh you should probably check on Liam’ and I was fully prepared to break down your door but Corey said that would probably be a bad idea and...” the other boy rambled on but Liam had stopped listening, of course, Garrett would throw Mason at Liam so he didn’t have to deal with him himself, the dick never like to deal with his own problems. Although when he thought about it, it was probably a good idea he didn’t just show up at his door and try to apologise or whatever, another punch to the face most definitely would have been necessary. 

 

“Your not even listening anymore are you?” His best friends voice broke him out of his thoughts and he smiled sheepishly even though he knew Mason couldn’t see him. “Alright, no, I don’t like this one bit. Now that I know your alive I’m coming over and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” 

 

And with that he hung up, leaving Liam to the silence of his room and the raging orchestra of his own thoughts. He glanced over at the digital clock that sat on his dresser, 6:00 pm it read, the reservation was made for 7:30 pm… Now Liam normally loved that it got dark so early in winter because it made cozy nights in happen more often, but the darkness was unwelcomed by him now. Flopping back onto his mattress, he breathed a heavy sigh, if it was up to him he wouldn’t move for the rest of the day but he knew Mason would be here soon.

 

——

 

“He did what now!?” Mason looked completely outraged, and beside him, Corey didn’t look much calmer, silently seething, it was kind of scary. 

 

“Yeah,” Liam sighed, “the thing is, it hasn’t really fully set in yet I guess, I can’t lie I’ve cried but now I just feel a bit…’ he trailed off, not really knowing how to express how he was feeling.

 

“Empty?” Corey finished for him, and he nodded because yeah, empty sounded right. It was silent for a moment, not awkward in any way, it was like they were just trying to process everything and Liam could understand that, he’s had to take time to process a lot too. 

 

“You had something booked tonight right, that really fancy restaurant?” Mason suddenly blurted, not waiting for an answer before he stood from his place at Liam's desk chair turning his gaze on him with a determined glint in his eye. “Well, we’re not going to let you sit here for the rest of the day and wallow in your own self-pity, the reservation was late right? We can still go.” 

 

The tone of his voice left no room for argument, Liam turned to see Corey nodding to agree with his idea, and honestly, he wasn’t about to disagree, he hadn’t eaten all day after all and if his friends wanted to take him out to cheer him up then he couldn’t say no. But then a thought crossed his mind.

 

“Don’t you to have plans to do anything today?” He asked.

 

“Well we’ve been bowling, it was fun,” Mason said, face twisting into a slightly guilty expression before he continued, “and we also maybe tried to get a booking for that place but we couldn’t because we did it too late, it’s all booked up for months. But who would we be to pass up an opportunity to make you feel better and have a nice meal together.” 

 

Liam laughed lightly, like Mason had anything to be guilty of, both he and Corey were giving up the rest of their day together to be with him. 

 

“Reservations at 7:30 guys,” he said with a grin, “help me choose what to wear.”

 

——

 

Four months later and Liam was… coping. Spending the first night without Garrett was made much easier because of the fact that he didn’t leave to spend it alone. 

 

_ They stumbled back into Liam's room, stomachs presently full and okay, maybe they were a little tipsy from drinking to much expensive wine, good thing Corey had suggested they take a taxi there. Liam hadn’t understood why but he went along with it, however, he quickly caught on when Mason asked for a second bottle of wine. Liam had passed him Garretts spare credit card he had gave him without a single moment's hesitation or feeling of guilt, but Mason didn’t have to know that, the cheating bastard owed him a bottle of damn wine after everything he put him through.  _

 

_ Collapsing on his bed in a heap he didn’t complain or question it when his friends wrapped themselves tightly around his body and held him close as they all drifted to sleep with the moon watching over them through his window. _

 

_ The next night, Hayden had stayed with him and he would forever be thankful for her company. Her honey scented hair calmed his raging emotions, she was his little ray of sunshine when the world around him was dark and miserable. She had trampled any room for thinking of things that would make him upset by making ridiculous jokes that really shouldn’t have been funny, but they were, because it was Hayden. _

 

_ “Hey Li, I know a good joke. god said to John, come forth and receive eternal life,” she had started already giggling to herself, “but he came fifth and won a toaster.” Liam couldn’t help but snort a laugh, he’d be storing that one away for a rainy day. _

 

He smiled at the memories, he didn’t even want to imagine going through everything without his friends by his side. He hadn’t spoken to Garrett since they broke up over a text message, which was another dig in itself, and he didn’t have to worry about seeing him or his new girlfriend around school, but that was a bit of a double-edged sword. They had moved to England together, because of course they had, and when Liam found out he tried hard not to think about how long something like that takes to plan and therefore how long his ‘perfect’ boyfriend must have been cheating on him. 

 

The reality of it all had set in a few days after he caught Garrett and Violet together, Liam thinks he coped we’ll all things considered, but he had stopped going to the gym for the past few months. It had been his and Garretts thing after all, they made training together fun somehow, fun enough that going never felt like a chore. He couldn’t bring himself to go back to the one at the school though, even though he knew there was no way he’d see his ex there, too many memories that he’d rather not re-live. But he woke up one Saturday morning deciding it was finally time to get back into it. He wasn’t fat by any means and he’d never been the musclely type, but he did miss his flat stomach.

 

He’d drive the 15 minutes to the new gym down the road to see if it’s any good, he decided, jumping up and pulling on a pair of black sweats, simple white t-shirt, and a dark blue hoodie. Looking at himself in the mirror, he gave his unruly hair a ruffle, giving up on trying to get it to work with him when it instantly fell back into the place it was before. No one cares what you look like in the gym anyways. 

 

Keys, phone, headphones, and he was out the door. He sucked in a sharp breath as the crisp morning air sapped the warmth from his body and he was almost tempted to run back inside and hide under the covers of his bed. No, I have more willpower than this, he thought to himself as he jumped into his car and started the engine. Rubbing his hands together did little to warm him before the cars heating system finally decided to kick in, and then he was driving off. 

 

He was in a good mood by the time he got there, having popped his headphones in half way through the drive and bobbing his head along to Troye Sivan. So maybe he had a little crush on the guy, but who could blame him right? The lyrics from BLUE were giving him all sorts of ideas for his own songs, he had to pull over at one point to write them into his notes before he forgot.

 

The place looked nice, modern. When he glanced up he could already see some people running on treadmills through the massive windows. Jogging up the steps towards the entrance he stared in awe for a moment, the place was bigger than he thought it would be, but it only made him more excited to go in. 

 

He was startled out of his trance by a hand gently patting him on the shoulder. He turned, pulling his headphones out in the process to address the person, but his words died in his throat as he took in the sight in front of him. The guy looked like an actual angel. 

 

The first thing Liam noticed was his eyes, they were a breathtaking shade of green and shone like gems on his face, his brown hair was messy and he was sweating, obviously just having finished a workout, but he still managed to look perfect. He was wearing a tight blue hoodie that clung to his body like a second skin, and damn did the guy have some amazing muscles, he could have sworn he saw actual sparkles surrounding him.

 

He couldn’t help but glance at the guy's mouth, which was curved into a sexy smirk that was _doing_ things to Liam. There was no point in trying to save himself now, he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t been staring, so he just coughed and awkwardly looked down silently cursing himself. 

 

The stranger chuckled and extended a hand to him.

 

“Hey, names Theo, I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before?” Liam looked back up, this Theo seemed friendly enough, and his eyes held no sign of mocking. 

 

“Wow, what an original line,” he said, reaching his own hand to shake Theo’s, definitely not thinking too much about how soft and warm it was. “I’m flattered.” 

 

Theo grinned, and thank god he was the type of guy to not take Liam’s obvious sarcasm seriously. 

 

“Sassy, I like it.” Liam only had a moment to be embarrassed about the way his cheeks burned up before a girl with long dark hair was running up to Theo and attaching herself to his arm.

 

“Hey T! Aw, your finished already? I was just going to go in and get started” she said, greeting him with a smile and Liam instantly felt a little deflated, of course he has a girlfriend. “Who’s this?” She asked, turning her attention to Liam and smiling at him as well, he somehow manages a small one back. 

 

“Tracy,” Theo greeted her in return, although his eyes never left Liam, “This is- actually I didn’t get your name?” 

 

“Liam.” he informed them. Tracy hummed, looking him up and down like she was sizing him up, Liam had to physically stop himself from squirming under her gaze. A smile broke out on her face as she turned back to Theo. 

 

“He’s cute.” She stated.

 

“Tracy!” Theo hissed, hitting her on the arm as she detangled herself from him and headed inside, calling a ‘see you later’ and a wink over her shoulder leaving Liam with no idea of what just happened.

 

“I’m sorry about her, she’s quite the character.” Theo laughed fondly, shaking his head. 

 

“No, it’s… fine, I’m just a little confused right now.” 

 

“Honestly, me too.” Theo grinned, “well anyways, you're obviously new here, want me to show you around?” He asked, gesturing back to the building.

 

“Um, no I’m good but thanks. You just finished up right, and I think you have to be shown round by one of the people who work here anyways?” 

 

Theo looked at him strangely before nodding.

 

“Yeah, I guess some of these new machines can be hard to get the hang of if you’ve never used them before. I’ll see you around then.” And then he was jogging away to the parking lot with one last brilliant smile that left Liam with butterflies in his stomach, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time…

 

He turned back to the entrance, taking a steadying breath before walking inside. 

 

——

 

The next Saturday morning Liam was up early again to head to the gym, he enjoyed going in the morning but unfortunately with school and other things Saturday was the only morning he could make it. Throughout the rest of the week, he had been going after school and decided he would be taking Sundays off. He had told Mason, Corey, and Hayden that he was starting the gym again and they were happy for him, Mason especially as he didn’t like to see his friend wasting away at home.

 

Hayden had even said she would come with him some days, she’d be starting on Monday, and Liam was glad to know he would have a new gym buddy.

 

Walking up the steps to the entrance he noticed a flyer in the window. 

 

Personal trainers available. 

only an extra $20 a month, cancel anytime.

 

Personal trainers huh? That sounded interesting, and with Liam just trying to get back into the gym it might be a good idea to get a little help, someone to give him a plan to stick to since so far he had just been doing whatever he felt like. So he made his way to the front desk where Izzy, the girl who worked there, was already waving him over. 

 

“Hey Liam, how are you today.” They had met last week the first day Liam came, and instantly bonded over their shared love of Marvel. He had come to pay for his session and buy a membership when she recognised the song he was singing from the new Black Panther movie soundtrack. One thing led to another and before he knew it, they had been talking for almost an hour. They exchanged phone numbers and always made an effort to have a conversation, even if just a small one, whenever Liam came in.

 

Izzy was pretty inside and out, she had blonde hair and dark eyes, always sporting a different vibrantly colored lipstick every day. She was so bubbly and easy to talk to, the kind of friend that you could get up to all kinds of crazy shenanigans with.

 

“Hey Iz, how was your date last night?” He asked and her eyes lit up. 

 

“Great fun! You’d think because me and Jasper have been together so long the dates would get… not boring, but less exciting you know? But he continues to surprise me.”

 

“Well, it’s good that you have someone that can keep up with you.” Liam laughed.

 

“Yup. Anyways, anything you need today?”

 

“Yeah actually, I was wondering about the personal trainers?”

 

“Oh yes! Your in luck, we only had a few people volunteer to do it but there’s one person left and I’m sure he’ll be happy to train you.” She smiled, typing a few things into her computer. “He should be here in 15 minutes or so if you don’t mind waiting?” 

 

“Sure, I’ll go sit in the cafe for a bit yeah?”

 

“I’ll send him over when he’s here.”

 

——

 

“For some reason your the last person I expected to see when Izzy emailed me that someone was interested in getting a personal trainer.” Liam’s head snapped up from his phone where he had been absentmindedly scrolling through Tumblr.

 

“Theo? You work here- wait what do you mean the last person you expected?” He asked, cringing a bit at how defensive he sounded. But Theo just smiled and sat down across from him.

 

“I mean, you just seemed like quite an independent person. That, and I didn’t think I could get this lucky.” He grinned and Liam blushed, what did he mean by that?

 

“And yes I do work here, I had my badge on when we met but it’s pretty easy to miss so I don’t blame you.” Liam's eyes flicked to where a small blue badge was pinned to Theo’s shirt with the logo and his name just underneath and oh, that’s probably why he had looked at him strangely when he had said he thought someone who worked here was meant to show him around.

 

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Well I guess I am kinda oblivious sorry, I haven’t seen you around since then though?” 

 

“I only work mornings, that’s probably why, but if you still want me to be your trainer I can easily swap shifts with my friend Josh, I’m assuming you come after school?” 

 

“Yeah, I mean, if it’s no trouble for you.” 

 

“Okay then,” Theo stated, clapping his hands together then reaching into his bag to grab a pen and notebook, “well if you tell me what your goals are I can draw up a plan for you and we can get started.” 

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo takes Liam shopping, because of course he does.

The rest of his time with Theo was surprisingly uneventful, he was very professional, running through what they would be doing for the next 6 weeks. He made sure Liam understood everything in case there was a day he needed to take off for whatever reason, but like Liam, he only took Sundays off.

 

He did find out that Theo’s family _owned_ the whole gym, his sister Tara did most of the behind scenes things to do with finance and Theo worked there for fun really, he didn’t need the money but found enjoyment in helping others. Liam would later deny swooning when he said that, but even if Theo did notice, he didn’t say anything, just smirked at him.

 

The frustrating thing was, it was hard to tell the difference between Theo’s smirks and what they meant, since one was almost permanently plastered to the boy's face. After their session he drove home he spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing, playing video games and writing songs, some lyrics had been floating around his head since he left the gym and he was glad when he finally got the chance to write them down.

 

_Come a little, come a little bit closer_

_I’ll tell you secrets you’ve never heard_

_Secrets you’ve never dreamed of_

_Secrets everyone else had slurred_

 

_Come a little, come a little bit closer_

_You’ve got the wrong idea babe_

_I have secrets for you_

_Only you…_

 

Yeah, he was happy with that, he has no idea what the words mean but somehow they just felt right, maybe he’ll even be able to find a tune to fit with them later.

 

Mason was coming over tomorrow so they could get some homework done. Basically so Liam wouldn’t end up doing it on Monday morning or the day that it was due to be handed in, which he’s done more times than he cares to admit. His best friend always did his best to keep him on track. Liam was still debating whether or not he should tell Mason about Theo. It was new, exciting, and there was part of him that didn’t want to rush anything and do this himself. However, he was sure the other boy would want to know and god knows he needs expert advice so he doesn’t fuck this up.

 

He woke up in a good mood Sunday morning, considering he had a day of doing homework in front of him. At least he got to spend it with Mason, and maybe Corey if he wanted to come along. Sure enough, around midday, the two boys were standing outside his door armed with a multitude of different books. He let them in with a smile, and he and Corey went upstairs to set everything up for them. Mason went straight to raid the kitchen for snacks, he’d been in Liam’s house enough times to not have to ask to do the little things like that, this was like his second home and Liam would only ever want him to feel comfortable here.

 

By the time he comes up the stairs, bags of chilli heatwave Doritos in his arms, Liam and Corey had already started their maths homework. It’s not as if it would take Mason long to catch up anyways, he was the smartest out of the three of them after all. He drops a bag into Liam’s lap and then drops himself into Corey’s, who snakes one hand around his boyfriend's waist while continuing to write with the other.

 

Liam sits there wondering when the best time would be to bring up his whole situation. After a bit of thinking, he had come to the conclusion that he wanted to tell his friends after all. He just wasn’t sure what they would think. Garrett had been months ago now, but what if they thought he was moving on to fast? But then again, they had also been happy for him when he told them he would be starting the gym again, and Liam tended to overthink these things.

 

“So I met a guy…” He starts awkwardly. Both Corey and Mason’s head’s immediately snap away from the books in front of them to stare at him wide-eyed. Liam had all of a second to be worried that they weren't happy to hear this news before they were both grinning at him, Corey wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

 

“Did you now, where? Oh my god! Please tell me you picked up some hot hunky dude at the gym.” Mason exclaimed excitedly, waving his arms around while Corey laughed lightly at the ridiculous movements.

 

“Already Li?” Corey said, “wow you move fast.”

 

Liam felt his cheeks burn red and he scowls at his friends, though he couldn’t keep it up for long before he was smiling back at them, falling back against his chair and taking a deep breath to wash away his nerves.

 

“Guys it’s nothing like that. Well, he’s hot I won’t deny that. His names Theo, he’s my personal trainer.”

 

“You got a personal trainer?” Mason asked curiously.

 

“Yeah, thought it might make things easier getting back into going to the gym, it was only a little extra per month. And I mean, sure he’s someone I could like, but he already has a girlfriend.”

 

“He told you that?” Corey asks, sounding slightly suspicious.

 

“Well not exactly, but there was a girl...” Liam trails off awkwardly. Sure Theo and Tracy had seemed close, but he did kind of just assume.

 

“A girl.” Mason repeated, seeming unconvinced.

 

“Yeah a girl, she was hanging off his arm and stuff, they seemed close. But then she called me cute and stuff to Theo, winked at me when she walked away and that’s where I got a little confused.” He exclaimed, at this point trying to convince himself more than the two boys in front of him.

 

Mason and Corey looked at each other, and maybe the whole communicating with just their eyes thing would be cool if Liam could also understand what they were saying to each other, he was sure he was missing something. Mason turned back to him.

 

“Are you sureeee that’s his girlfriend?” The boys asked as if he knew something Liam didn’t.

 

“Like I said, he didn’t say that, but they seemed close.” He replied.

 

Mason turned to Corey again who shook his head slightly, looking like he was holding off a laugh.

 

“Okay Liam whatever you say.”

 

——

 

Liam was pleasantly surprised at how fast Monday’s school day flew by, their homework session the day before had definitely been helpful, and it was one of those days where he went into school not having to worry about scribbling down whatever he could in his book because he hadn’t done the homework. Seriously, what would he do without his friends?

 

He was excited to keep his productive day going, he walked with Hayden from their last lesson, swung both their bags into the back of his car and drove them both to the gym. Although she would never admit it, Hayden was a great singer, therefore making her great car company. Liam would always as subtly as possible, turn the radio down to hear her better when she got into a particularly good song, but she wouldn’t take any compliments.

 

She didn’t know it, but she was also a big part of Liam’s song inspiration, all the people who were important to him were. He just wished he could make her believe him when he told her how good she was, they made a great team in other things, maybe they could in music too.

 

They both wave at Izzy as they walk into the gym, although Liam’s eyes were immediately seeking out a certain beautiful trainer. He spots him and Tracy talking to a guy near the pool door, they exchange a nod and then Theo is making his way over to them, Tracy still talking to the guy. Liam's heart does a little flip-flop at the sight of him, which is ridiculous, he’s only known the guy a few days. But the closer he gets the faster Liam’s heart starts beating in his chest and he wills himself to get it under control.

 

“Hey Li,” Theo greets him with that stupidly attractive smile of his. “Who’s this?” He asks, gesturing to Hayden.

 

“This is my friend Hayden, Hayden this is Theo.”

 

Theo extends a hand to her and she smiles, shaking his hand.

 

“So your Theo, I’ve heard a lot about you.” Liam sends her a glare but she just smiles sweetly at him.

 

“Only good things I hope.” Theo says, chucking, and then suddenly Tracy appears at his side.

 

“Hey T, who is _this_.” She says, smirking at Hayden, who looks slightly caught off guard at suddenly being the center of attention.

 

“This is Hayden, Liam’s good friend.” Theo says, he has a sparkle in his eye watching the two girls, and Liam can’t figure out for the life of him what it means.

 

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, Hayden.” Tracy says as she shakes hands with her, Hayden seems to realise she’s staring and takes her hand back blushing, while Tracy looks pleased with herself. “You and Liam have plans right Theo? Hayden you should come train with me today, leave these boys to do their thing.”

 

She hardly has time reply yes before Tracy is taking her hand and dragging her away, leaving Theo and Liam alone.

 

“Ready to get started then?” Theo’s voice snaps him out from staring after the two girls, he nods as they start walking towards the gym entrance “Just a short session today, I want to talk to you about food and nutrition, there’s no point in working out if you have a shitty diet after all.” He states. Liam really admires how passionate Theo is about this, he can tell Theo genuinely cares about helping him, and that it wouldn’t matter if he did anything wrong, Theo would put him right.

 

“So I’ve been told.” He replies, laughing.

 

“Well, that’s why we’re going shopping.” Theo says nonchalantly. He grabs Liam’s hand and begins pulling him towards the door, making the other boy splutter in surprise as he's dragged along. He glances over to the main desk were he catches a glimpse of Izzy, who's smirking at them, they probably do look like a ridiculous pair right now.

 

“Shopping.” Liam repeats dumbly.

 

“Yes, shopping. I take my job very seriously.” Theo replies with a wink, and only once their outside does he slow down, but still doesn’t let go of his hand. Liam tries to think about anything else than the warmth that seems to be seeping through Theo into him, traveling up his arm and settling somewhere around his heart. He fails miserably. Theo’s grip is tight but not painfully so, it’s more grounding than anything else, unwanted images flash through his mind of those strong fingers wrapped around something else- no, now is definitely not the time.

 

He realises Theo has been talking this entire time, something about... being okay to get in his truck? Liam’s brain short circuits.

 

“Me? Get in your truck?” He squeaks, and feels a flash of embarrassment a second later. Theo just chuckles, stopping and turning to face him.

 

“Don’t worry I’m not gonna take you into the woods and murder you,” he laughs, and Liam ducks his head more in embarrassment. “Now that your back on the same planet as the rest of us, I was just asking if you were okay with me driving us to the supermarket, it's easier than taking two cars, but if your more comfortable driving there yourself that’s fine Liam.”

 

“Oh.” He says, taking a second to let Theo’s words process. It would be silly to take two cars, he could handle this fine. “No your right, no point in both of us driving there.”

 

Theo smiles, nodding and giving another light tug on his hand, pulling Liam towards his truck.

  


The ride there was fun, their conversation flowed easily leaving no room for awkwardness. It helped that Theo likes a lot of the same music Liam did, as he learned. So they had another common ground to talk about other than the obvious subject of the gym. Liam didn’t tell Theo about his songwriting though, it’s not as if he didn’t trust him, but it was something very personal to Liam. Not even his parents know, only Corey, Mason and Hayden. It was mostly because a lot of his songs were written when he needed to vent his feelings. Whether that meant sad, happy, angry or any other emotion depended on the day, and everyone knows feelings aren’t the easiest things to talk to your parents about. But he really was doing fine.

 

It took a special kind of person for Liam to feel like he was able to open up to them. Trust had to be built, and they had to be willing to knock down the walls he builds around himself. He’s found that different people go about that in different ways. Big personalities like Hayden and Mason take their metaphorical sledgehammer and go at it until the walls crumble. Observant people look for the cracks and slither their way into your life, it may take longer that way but those people become just as close to your heart as the others. He idly wonders what kind of way Theo would do it, if Liam let him.

 

Liam snaps out of his thoughts when Theo announces that their here. They both jump out the truck and make their way inside. Theo waves to the cashier, like he’s been here a million times before and the people who work here just now expect him coming in, he probably has.

 

Liam pouts as Theo leads him to the fruit and vegetable aisle. It’s not that he doesn’t like the stuff, but he’s never had to do this kind of shopping for himself before. His mum, hell even his step-dad, is usually in charge of doing this kind of thing. The most Liam can ever remember doing is running to the store for a carton of milk, using the spare change to buy himself a candy bar if his parents allowed it.

 

Theo laughs when he sees his face, rolling his eyes somewhat fondly at him before diving into an in-depth explanation of which vegetables provided more of certain vitamins and which fruits mixed together to provide the best nutritional smoothies while still tasting good. Honestly, Liam tries to listen, it’s just that Theo is very distracting.

 

He had that look in his face again that told Liam he loved what he was talking about and he got it, once you find something you love you want to preach it to the world. He kind of envied the fact that Theo felt he could talk about this so freely when he himself felt the best thing to was to hide away his passion from most people.

 

He caught bits here and there, enough that if Theo asked him about it he would be able to give him somewhat of an answer. Theo’s muscled arms were waving around as he talked, and for some reason, he felt the need to take Liam’s hand every time he dragged him to another part of the store, but Liam wasn’t complaining.

 

He was, however, complaining when they skipped straight past the sweets and chocolate aisle, frankly Liam was outraged to hear there wasn’t a single thing down there that he would be able to get away with eating on this new plan Theo was putting him on. The older boy had this look in his eye that told Liam he would know if he tried to sneak a chocolate bar in his back pocket, so he refrained from doing so, but not without another dramatic pout that made Theo laugh again, accompanied be another fond eye roll.

 

Liam was happy to pout all the time if that was the reaction he would get.

 

It had occurred to him at some point that Theo had a girlfriend and here he was holding hands with him in a supermarket, to the outside eye it would look like they were a couple on a shopping trip. But if Theo didn’t have a problem with it, Liam wasn’t about to make it a problem.

 

He suddenly realised Theo was pulling him towards where the fish are and grimaced, he’d always thought it was a bit disgusting they were always just lying there in ice on display, eyes still in and all.

 

“What’s with that look on your face? Fish is good.” Theo asked, tilting his head to the side, and that shouldn’t have been so adorable.

 

“Bad experiences I guess.” Liam deadpanned.

 

“Care to share?”

 

“You really wanna know?” Liam asked with a raised eyebrow, continuing when Theo just nodded. “There was this party. We were playing truth or dare and it was my turn so I chose dare. For whatever reason, the guy whose house it was had a fish in his fridge and he was choosing my dare. Long story short I ended up eating a fish eye and was slightly traumatised for life.”

 

By the time he had finished, Theo’s face was red as he tried to hold in his laughter. “That’s.. that’s really horrible.” He said, trying and failing to sound sincere before bursting out laughing.

 

“It’s not funny man, like I said, I’m traumatised.” Liam tried to sound serious but he was laughing too, giggling actually.  They must look ridiculous he thought, two kinda adults laughing their asses off in front of a bunch of frozen fish. What a picture.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever had this much of a laugh while food shopping, your something else Li.” Theo said, and Liam blushed, hiding his face in his hands hoping Theo didn’t notice.

 

“Anyways, here take this.” He said, handing Liam a folded up piece of paper, “get yourself some of the things on this list to start, I’m gonna go get us a coffee.”

 

“Coffee not too unhealthy for you.” Liam teased.

 

“I don’t know, is it? I can just get me one of you want.” Theo shot back, smirking. And damn why did this guy have a comeback for everything.

 

“Theo don’t do this to me.” He laughed, “just milk in mine please.”

 

“Coming right up.” He said, emphasising the ‘p’. And if Liam took a moment to enjoy the view of Theo leaving, no one would ever know.

 

He glanced down at the list in his hand, and then back at the isles and couldn’t help but think this was going to be a lot less fun without Theo. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A day later than I promised, sorry about that, but AO3 was being a bitch yesterday and wouldn't let me post. Anyways, hope you enjoyed :) xx


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s just a normal Tuesday morning, nothing that surprising could happen today right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s pretend I didn’t miss a few weeks. I’m sorry ahhhh \o/

Liam was very, _very_ , tempted to smash his alarm clock the next morning when it woke him up. He should really change the setting from the eardrum popping beeping sound to something that wouldn’t make him jump out of his skin every weekday morning it went off. But then he probably wouldn’t wake up so there was no winning here.

Despite the way he woke up, he found the days were becoming slightly more fun and manageable now that he had something to look forward to. Coffee with Theo had been really nice yesterday, they had a lot in common which made it easy to keep the conversation flowing, but not enough to make it boring. He is sure there’s more to Theo than meets the eye, he has a feeling the boy will continue to surprise him. Liam just hopes he's able to do the same, he’s kinda interesting?

Mason and Corey had kept shooting him shit-eating grins all day, like they knew how much he wished he could just get up and run out the school to head to the gym, how was it possible for one person, especially someone he just met, to be having such an effect on him already?

Maybe he was in over his head, but as soon as the last bell rang, he was waving bye to his friends and rushing out the double doors. If he were a cartoon there probably would have been a trail of smoke left in his wake, the thought made him laugh at how ridiculous he sounded.

When he got to the gym he looked around the parking lot for Theo’s truck, but he couldn’t see it so he mustn’t be here yet. Liam tried to squash down his disappointment, instead reaching into the glove compartment to retrieve his journal? Diary thing? The place where he wrote down all his song lyrics.

Staring down intently at the last thing he wrote, he willed his mind to come up with something to continue on with what he had already written. Looking down at the words was somewhat frustrating, he had no idea what he was really doing, although did any writer when they were trying to come up with a new song? Liam always finds himself thinking about how you never get to see the behind the scenes of songs being produced. You never see the bin full of crumpled up papers from where the artist has scrapped some lyrics.

They make it look too easy, you wait for the next song to come out and then it’s there, a lot of people don’t think about where the words come from, what second or hidden meaning they could have.

_Come closer, hide away with me_

_  
Follow me to the edge of the world_

_  
We can go anywhere land or sea_

_  
Follow you to the edge of the world_

_Tell me if I’m out of line_

_  
But I don’t want us to run out of time_

_  
So boy give me a sign_

_  
Tell the other guys they gotta get in line_

_  
‘Cause right now your mine_

Maybe there’s a second meaning even Liam isn’t aware of himself, he still doesn’t know why these words seem to call out to him, but he doesn’t really want to think about it too much. He starts quietly humming a tune to himself, closing his eyes and trying to find a beat that fits with the words he just scribbled down.

He’s so lost in his own world that at first, he doesn’t notice the figure appear next to his window, not until there’s a tap on his shoulder that jolts him back to reality.

“Woah, Liam it’s just me.” He knows that voice, it’s Theo.

“You've got to stop doing that to me.” Liam said, hiding his head in his hands, blushing.

“You gotta stop being so jumpy,” Theo laughs, “what are you doing sitting in here anyway?”

“I’m uh, writing a song.” Liam doesn’t know why he tells Theo this, he never just _tells_ people about his hobby. But for some reason Liam trusts him, and he’s always went along with his gut feeling in the past so there’s no point in questioning it now.

Theo stares at him, green eyes boring into his. He holds eye contact for as long as he can before coughing awkwardly and looking back to the book on his lap, wringing his hands together like he always does whenever he’s nervous.

“So when you putting out band applications?” Theo asks.

“What?” Liam looks back to Theo, and the boy has a playful glint in his eye, but he also looks somewhat serious. Unless he’s just a good actor.

“I’m assuming you were trying to think of some kind of tune to go with it? Sounded pretty good to me, but it would probably sound better played on a guitar, which I happen to be very good at.” Theo grins.

“It’s not… I’m not, starting a band exactly. It’s kinda therapeutic, writing my feelings into songs that is.” Liam said somewhat awkwardly, he can still feel Theo’s gaze on the side of his head and it’s starting to make him sweat a bit, the car feels too small.

“Huh, sorry, guess I read the situation wrong. That’s cool though, and this,” Theo points towards the messy words on the page, “is really good.”

“You think so?” Liam said shyly, turning back to Theo to see his reaction. Did he really like it? Liam has never had an outside opinion before, it's always just been his friends who gave their opinions on his lyrics. Even though they promised to be truthful, Liam didn't blame them for being a little bit bias. But Theo, Theo had no reason not to give a completely honest opinion and it made Liam extremely happy to know someone else thought what he was doing was great.

“Yeah, and even if you are just doing this for fun, we could mess around with some tunes for it. If you wanted to,” Theo replies, and Liam nods, surprised at how much of an interest Theo is taking in this. Liam doesn’t miss the way Theo leans forward a bit more into his space, and now it’s definitely feeling too cramped in here for his liking.

“We should probably go inside.” Liam said, changing the subject, and Theo finally seems to snap out of his staring trace, pulling back from the window of the car, a mask of calm covering his face.

“Yeah um, I’ll meet you in there.” Theo said, giving him another small smile before turning on his heels and making his way inside. Liam gnaws on his bottom lip, what was happening between them? For someone with a girlfriend, Theo is extremely flirty.

Masons words are ringing in the back of his head, and he knows he still doesn’t know if Tracy is actually Theo’s girlfriend, but it doesn’t stop him feeling slightly guilty. Unfortunately, as much as he’d like to know, it’s not exactly something he can bring up easily in casual conversation. He sighs, reaching into the back seat of his car to grab his gym bag and head inside after Theo.

He waves to Izzy on the way in and hurry’s to get changed, he doesn’t want to keep Theo waiting too long. It’s not that busy today, he's glad to note, there’s nothing Liam hates more than when there are so many people in the gym that he can’t even get on a treadmill. He thinks it weird how different people who come here are, but he’s learned they all more or less fit into a few categories.

Just to name a few, there are the teenage girls who come purely to snap a picture and put it on their Snapchat stories, as if they actually bothered to work out, he doesn’t understand how people are fooled by the photos they post. No one has perfect hair and makeup after a workout, those kinds of people make him roll his eyes to himself.

Then there’s a similar story, skinny boys who come to snap a few pictures and think the gym is some kind of social gathering, as if they can’t just go literally anywhere else to sit and talk. There the ones who do a few bicep curls with the lightest possible weights and call it a day, it’s like they’re there just for the purpose of annoying Liam by sitting on their phones on the machines. And they wonder why they never see any progress.

It’s not all bad though, there are the people who actually use the gym how it’s supposed to be used, Liam likes those people, as long as their not too talkative. He likes it when it’s quiet, when he has the space to do what he planned to do without interruption, it’s also a bonus when he doesn’t feel like he has so many eyes on him.

He spots Theo warming up by the large mirror at the end of the room where all the weights are. There’s a thin layer of sweat already covering his skin and Liam’s mouth waters as his arm muscles move every time he does a pull up on the bar.

Theo looks up as Liam makes his way over to him and winks, dropping from the bar wiping his face with a towel. Liam shakes his head to rid it of the unwanted thoughts he’s suddenly having, why did Theo have to wink at him so often, it isn’t good for his health.

“Started without me.” He said when he came to stop in front of Theo.

“Not my fault you take so long to get changed.” Theo chuckles, patting Liam on the shoulder as he moves around him to fill his water bottle at the fountain behind him, such a thing should have such an effect on Liam, but his skin burns where Theo touches him.

He scoffs, trying to hide his reaction.

“Whatever, what are we doing today then?” He asks.

“Abs.” Theo said, poking Liam in the stomach, “not that I think you have much to work on.” He continues smiling cheekily at him when Liam slaps his hand away, attempting to glare. Clearly, it doesn’t have much effect, as Theo just starts rattling off different exercises and techniques.

——

  
Liam’s sweaty and absolutely starving by the time his session with Theo is finished, he showers quickly in the changing room and makes his way to the cafe where he knows they sell healthy snacks, protein shakes, and other various things. He buys an apple and a protein bar and wastes no time in devouring both.

It’s just his luck as he looks for the bin he sees the cleaner changing the bag, it’s no big deal though, he’ll just use the one outside around the side of the building. He checks to make sure he hasn’t forgotten anything, grabs his keys out of his bag, and makes his way outside.

He hears a strange noise just as he reaches the edge of the building, but doesn’t think much of it. That is until he’s rounding the corner and stopping dead in his tracks when he’s greeted with the image of Tracy pinning his best friend to the wall and proceeding to make out with her.

Liam drops his keys to the floor in shock, why does he have to keep running into people in this situation? The loud clink his keys made as they hit the floor made Hayden and Tracy jump apart and stare at him with wide eyes.

“I swear if you say it’s not what it looks like I’m not doing this again.” Hayden said to Tracy, elbowing her in the side.

“First of all, ow. Second, I wasn’t even gonna say that!” Tracy said, turning to Hayden and faking hurt, the other girl can’t seem to help the little bubble of laughter escape her at Tracy’s words.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Liam asks dumbly, scrambling to pick his keys up, “I mean- I thought you were dating Theo Tracy.” He blurts.

Tracy turns back to him and blinks owlishly, and there a beat of silence before she’s bursting out laughing, doubling over and clutching her stomach. Liam just stands there utterly confused. He looks to Hayden for some kind of explanation but she just raises an eyebrow at him.

“You thought,” Tracy manages to get out between giggles, “that I was dating Theo Raeken.”

“I mean, yeah kinda, why’s that so surprising?” He asks.

Tracy stops laughing, taking a deep breath to compose herself, whipping a dramatic tear from her eye.

“Oh Liam, your not a very good judge of character at you?” She said, and sighs when Liam continues to look confused. “Theo’s my best friend Liam, that, and he’s gay.”

“What!?”

“You heard me, so don’t you worry that pretty little head of yours if you have a crush on him.”

“No I- I don’t! What are you talking about?” Hayden laughs at him, and yeah that didn’t sound very convincing to his own ears either. “Whatever that still doesn’t explain what you're doing here.”

Liam can feel the tips of his ears turning red, he hates being embarrassed, he says enough stupid things normally. It’s obvious what they were doing, before he interrupted that is. It’s not as if he has a problem with it, Tracy seems cool, he just didn’t expect it, not from Hayden who usually didn’t like to jump into relationships so fast.

“Nevermind,” he said, cracking a smile, “so you want a lift home Hayden or do you wanna keep sucking Tracy’s face?”

It was Hayden’s turn to blush this time, and Liam would be lying if he said it didn’t make him feel a little better about himself. He watches as Hayden starts walking towards him, Tracy catching her wrist and pulling her into a quick but sweet kiss. They pull apart and Tracy whispers something in her ear, then waits for Hayden to nod before letting go again, smiling.

_How sickeningly cute_ , Liam thinks to himself.

“Let’s go then, see you round Tracy.” He calls over his shoulder, Tracy waving at them both before disappearing through the back door. Liam and Hayden walk in silence until they reach Liam’s car and climb inside, only then does Liam turn to his friend, leaning towards her, his smile probably mirroring the one's Mason and Corey gave him earlier.

“So you and Tracy huh?” He said, and Hayden laughs, pushing him back into his own seat with a hand in his chest. Liam falls back pouting.

“You look ridiculous.” She said, but Liam doesn’t relent, staring her down until she sighs and begins to talk.

“Don’t look so smug about it, I know I normally wouldn’t do something remotely close to that with someone I just met but… There’s something different, special about her.”

“Hmm continue.” Liam said.

“Little shit probably had it planned from the start, she said she needed help getting some equipment from the back and asked me to help, so I follow her round back where they keep it and next thing I know, well, I think you saw.”

“Hayden, if you think she’s a good person, which for the record I do too, then it’s fine right?” Liam asks.

“I’m glad you think so because I do. There something about her, I dunno what it is but I’ll let you know as soon as I find out what it is.” Hayden laughs, a bit of tension seeming to drain from her shoulders at Liam’s approval. He understands why she would have been worried, she’s probably the first person Liam would go to for her opinion if he started dating someone too.

“I think I get it, Theo’s got that too, there’s something magnetic about him. Wow, I sound ridiculous.” He shakes his head at himself, but when he looks to Hayden she looks happy, which makes him smile too.

“I think we’ve both got it pretty bad.” She grinned.

“Probably. Enough sappy talk though, I’m starving, you?” Hayden nods. “Then food is now our number one priority then.” He said, finally driving out of the parking lot, Hayden choosing a song and turning up the volume high. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to update every Saturday. It should be totally doable for me, so if I don't update feel free to shout at me on my [Tumblr.](http://i-heart-thiam.tumblr.com)


End file.
